


Reckless Mistake

by IAmStoryteller



Series: Valentines' Day 2017 [4]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman (Movies - Nolan), Batman and Robin (Comics), Batman and Robin Eternal, Batwoman - Fandom
Genre: Denial of Feelings, F/M, Gen, Insecurity, Valentines' Day, host club
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-24 02:26:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9695639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmStoryteller/pseuds/IAmStoryteller
Summary: Bette, Barbara, Cassandra, Harper, Carrie, Stephanie, and Cullen go out to a host club on Valentines’ Day for reasons/Bette processes her growing feelings for her friend-with-benefits Jason Todd AKA Red Hood AKA the very distracting hot guy who’s both irritating and charming and respectful and sexy all at the same time.





	

The ladies of the Batfamily came through the windows of Oracle’s old Clock Tower, because the Cave was actually quite crowded these days. Especially since Batman and Batwoman decided to work together more often. Well, more often meaning _not just_ when the city of Gotham was about self-destruct for one reason or another. And tonight was not the night to get in the middle of one of their leader-arguments, as the Batboys called it. 

Bette/Hawkfire was glad the day and night were over and maybe after several hours of sleep she’ll feel better. While Cullen, who had been waiting for his sister, leapt up from his seat by the computers to check Harper for wounds, Carrie and Barbara went straight to work on recording that night’s events. Stephanie stretched, while Cassandra didn’t move and she was staring directly at Bette.

She loved Cassandra really, but sometimes she was as unnerving as Damian. “Cass, what’s the matter?”

“You were using your left hand tonight to punch. Is your right hand okay,” she asked, innocently enough. Unconsciously, Bette held her hands together. Cassandra was a master of conversation and body language. Bette knew that she was favoring her left hand (she was ambidextrous, actually).

Her right hand was tightly bound after a morning of gripping her tennis racket and hitting high speed balls at (and occasionally through) the park fence. Tennis took her mind off her recent slipup. “All good, Cass. Just trying to strengthen it.” Cassandra stared at her and nodded, believing Bette’s little white lie for the moment, especially since they both got distracted when Stephanie growled at her phone that she just checked for messages from her mother.

“Seriously?! I can’t believe him,” huffed Stephanie. Tim was in trouble. “He, Nightwing, Red Hood and Robin are going out of the city for a brothers’ bonding bullshit next weekend! It’s Valentines’ Day. He just came back to life. He’s not fair. I mean, I get it. It’s Dick, Jason and Damian, but I’m his girlfriend!” Bette winced. Stephanie was the only one dating anyone. She was devastated when they all thought that Tim was dead—he was in a dead-like stasis along with Superboy/Kon-El. Bette watched the younger vigilante cry for a week at the little mention of Tim or reminders of Tim after Red Robin was lost.

Understandably, the boys were trying to be better brothers to each other, since they all were considered dead at one point or another.

“If you want, you can come with me, Stephanie, next weekend to my Valentines’ annual ‘let’s feel good about myself by flirting with attractive men and eating really good food’ celebration,” said Bette, putting up a smile. It’s not like Bette expected to do anything with Red Hood. They weren’t dating, they were just occasionally having sex with each other and sometimes having heart-to-hearts (well, as much as two emotionally repressed people can). She didn’t dare bring up Valentines’ Day. And he didn’t either, so it was better that Red Hood was spending time with his brothers.

Better for Bette that is.

“Sounds like fun,” said Carrie. “Can I come?”

“Sure! You all can come with. I’ll take you shopping! And we’ll have such fun,” said Bette, happy to having an outing. Bette didn’t really have a lot of good friends, not like the rest of them, who had friends outside of superhero circles.

“Where would we be going,” asked Harper. Bette grinned. She and Harper were different as day and night. Bette liked Harper a lot, thought she was cool; thought Harper braved a lot in her life. She especially respected her protective instincts towards her precious little brother Cullen. It was rare however that Harper made an effort with Bette. Harper was wary of Bette, because of their different backgrounds. She couldn’t blame the blue haired teenager; no one but Barbara knew her really well. (And that was after years of Barbara pushing and pushing and pushing until Bette caved).

“The Immortals,” replied Bette. Barbara laughed out loud. “What? It’s the only one that’s like legit and legal.” The others looked confused.

Cullen surprisingly knew what it was. “That’s like the most exclusive host club in the States. I’ve seen photos of the hosts; they could put a lot of heroes to shame with their beauty.” 

“Really,” asked Harper, making a face. The sarcastic, caustic comments were piling up in Harper’s brain, Bette knew.

Bette laughed. “Don’t judge! It’s a classy place, not a dump and you don’t have to talk to anyone, the food is some of the most amazing food, they go all out for Valentines.”

“Harper, can we go,” asked Cullen.

“Ugh, bro, I don’t know if they’d be okay with a guy client.”

“What?! Of course, Cullen needs to come,” said Bette. “Cassandra too. Harper, think about it. We can teach Cullen how to get over his shyness and flirt with guys for practice. Social cues and stuff. And then he’ll be able to get a cute boyfriend and live happily ever after!” Bette was teasing the Row siblings, but they looked at each other as if Bette was crazy. “I’ll pay for everything.”

-`-`-`-`

Paying for everything was one thing. Getting the ladies out of training and out of their lives to go shopping for appropriate awesome attire was another. Carrie and Stephanie didn’t take much convincing. Barbara knew when Bette had something in her mind just to give in. Cassandra reluctantly followed Barbara and Stephanie’s lead. Cullen convinced Harper.

Therefore, the group was in Bette’s store (not that they knew it was her store, because a lot of her dealings were low-key and secret). Technically it was her store but a few of her college acquaintances, who had talent that it would have been a sin not to fund them, owned the stores. She bankrolled them. She liked their clothing—tailored to fit and personalized to any style.

Booth Sutherland ran the Gotham store and the New York store while his cousin Eli ran the LA store. Just her luck that Booth was there, being an over-demanding drama queen of a boss. Bette thought he was awesome.

“Bette, love, you look properly tired! And are…OMG, ARE YOU WEARING SWEATPANTS IN MY STORE LIKE A HOBO,” he scolded Bette loudly. Bette blinked. She looked at her pants and realized that yes, she was wearing sweatpants.

Shit, she stole Jason’s sweatpants. Shit, shit, shit. She was so focused on figuring out a way to convince the Batladies to go shopping that she just threw her hair up in a bun (leaving Jason snoring in her bed), grabbed the closest pair of pants. She thought they were a little bigger, so she rolled the legs up and tightened the waist. She wore her big fluffy sweater with Gotham U’s logo on it. Even though she grew up in LA, the cold didn’t bother her, especially not Gotham’s cold, nasty winter weather. It was in the mid-fifties today.

“Tone it down,” said Bette, trying to play cool because Barbara looked at her and it spoke volumes about her life choices. “We are going out on Valentines’ Day to The Immortals. Dress us up nicely!” This distracted Booth from her clothing choice, thankfully. “Let’s start with the easiest one! Stephanie, you’re first.” Booth may have been a drama queen, but he had an eye for style and could tell what people liked when they arrived in store and made something good out of it.

While everyone was distracted by the master stylish designer, Bette sat in one of the chairs. Barbara slid in the seat next to her.

“Bette, those are Jason’s. I know that because it had Red Hood bedazzled on the butt, as a joke by Dick and Tim,” said the older woman, seriously, but softly that she could only here. Barbara joked about Jason and Bette’s UST but they were just jokes. She didn’t think that either of them would get the courage to go for it. 

“Ugh, don’t tell Bruce…?”

-`-`-`-`

She was a party pooper. Honestly, she liked parties. She liked the attention, but she was glad the others were having fun. Her cousin, from her mother’s side, was the manager of the club. She called to make sure they had hosts for each of her lady friends and Cullen, so they had someone interesting to talk with during the night. Cullen’s host was taking great delight in teaching the younger man to flirt.

She sat with a 7-Up (because she didn’t drink, none of them did), watched the delighted expressions on their faces. It was nice to have attention and talk with someone interested (even if it was their jobs). 

Bette looked good. Well, she always looked good and always got attention. But she knew what was bothering her. Why she was being a wallflower.

Bette wanted to be with Jason. It was a very bad thing. Like a major bad thing. And it wasn’t Jason Todd’s fault. Not at all. Bette had a weakness for hot guys that were bad for her. She had a long list of exs that were jerks and assholes and any number of combinations of douche-baggery levels. She never got attached.

But she knew better. She fucking knew better. She should have known better. The little flirting that happened between her and Red Hood should have been friendly and harmless and not gone anywhere. No, because Bette epically fails at life and relationships, she decided to sleep with him.

Jason was a hot guy but he wasn’t bad for her. Sure, he was irritating as fuck with his sexy smirks and sarcastic quips, but he was charming in his own adorable way, teasing gently with his words and looks and then she was fucked in more ways than one. The best thing, though, was that he was respectful of her. Like every time, he asked her if it was okay and how did she feel, was it good, or did he need to do something different and what she liked and didn’t like. He even didn’t mind cuddling. He was a cuddle-monster.

Why? Why did she think of getting attached to a person that was a part of her royally screwed up but totally amazing family? She couldn’t do relationships. Not at all. She didn’t want to hurt him. She really didn’t, it wasn’t fair to him that she was such a fucked-up bitch that seduced him. She chugged the soda, feeling it settle uncomfortably in her stomach.

She knew what these feelings were and to say that she wasn’t happy with herself was the understatement of the century.

Then, naturally, being their lives, Poison Ivy and Joker (fighting) came crashing through the large windows of the club, followed by a screeching Harley Quinn (in a jet pack). Bette snorted. Ivy and Joker were fighting over Harley again.

Of course, because this could only get better, Nightwing, Red Robin, Robin and Red Hood came swinging in on grappling hooks (and why they were supposed to be out of town?)

Bette hated feelings.

-`-`-`-`

She really hated feelings. Especially when Jason was looking at her like a kicked puppy with his damn big blue-green eyes that made her melt internally every time he looked at her, because eventually they wound up at her apartment and he wasn’t happy that she went out to a host club to flirt with guys. (Even though she wasn’t! She was thinking about him and his dumb face the whole time!)

“Am I not enough for you? Do you not like me,” he asked, straightforward, for him. Bette took off her red boots and threw them aside.

“I,” started Bette. Then, she flipped her lid, arms flailing while she ranted. “I don’t know! I don’t know, alright. Of course, I like you. Why wouldn’t I? And I wasn’t flirting with anybody, I wasn’t. The others were, because like damn, do they need to have handsome men flirt with them and make them feel special, like you make me feel. You make me all confused! Like why can’t I stop thinking about you? And I’m stealing your clothes like some freaky stalker and I really wanted to spend Valentines with you but we’re not in a real relationship because if we were you’d have been out the door and my heart would be broken already, because I can’t do relationships. You are more than I deserve. I really, really like you. Might even be falling in love you, if you don’t run away screaming in abject terror after I just turned into a hysterical crazy person right now.” She was pouting and tried to not burst into tears.

Jason Todd, one of the most feared and badass vigilantes who made grown hardened criminals cry on a nightly basis, grinned—not just any grin but a goofy, toothy grin like a kid would make after getting what he wanted. “I can’t do relationships either, so let’s not and just not label anything. Cause I like you. And I wanted do Valentines but you didn’t bring it up, so I thought you didn’t like it? And I think you wearing my clothes is cute. I really like you, Bette.”

Bette leapt at him and hugged him.

God, she was as fucked as she knew she was at the start of the week, but she realized that maybe this time, it’ll work out for her because it’s Jason and he’s so wonderful and safe.


End file.
